Thursday, March 31, 2011

Theme Thursdays is a fun weekly event hosted by Reading Between Pages that will be open from one Thursday to the next. Anyone can participate in it. The rules are simple:

A theme will be posted each week (on Thursday’s)

Select a conversation/snippet/sentence from the current book you are reading

Mention the author and the title of the book along with your post

It is important that the theme is conveyed in the sentence (you don’t necessarily need to have the word)Ex: If the theme is KISS; your sentence can have “They kissed so gently” or “Their lips touched each other” or “The smooch was so passionate”

This will give us a wonderful opportunity to explore and understand different writing styles and descriptive approaches adopted by authors.

This week’s theme is –ANIMAL

A black dog sat in the circle.A large hairy black dog.One that slobbered.

"A dog?"I said, plopping in a surprised heap next to the window."I summoned up a dog?"

"I am not just any dog," the animal snarled, its pink tongue flashing as it spoke.My eyes widened as I realized the words came from it's black lips."What, are you, blind?I'm a Newfoundland!That's like royalty among dogs!"

Dark. Mysterious. Sensual. When Bronse Chapel, the commander of a specialized unit of the Interplanetary Militia, begins to dream about a beautiful and exotic brunette, he wants to dismiss it as being induced by lack of sleep . . . or perhaps lack of sex. But his instincts tell him it’s something different, something far more dangerous.

Ravenna is the leader of the Chosen Ones, a small group of people from her village born with extraordinary powers. She doesn’t know that draws her to Bronse’s dreams night after night, but she senses that he and his team are in jeopardy. Ravenna can help him, but first Bronse must save the Chosen Ones from those who plan to use their powers for evil. Together, Bronse and Ravenna will be unstoppable. But Ravenna is hiding something that could endanger them all.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

My Book Boyfriend is a weekly meme hosted by Missie of The Unread Reader, in which we swoon over boys in books!(I--as in me, Amy--don't like to use commercial photos, I like to use the authors' descriptions and my imagination.)

Lachlain MacRieveBook:A Hunger Like No Other by Kresley ColeSeries: Immortals After Dark

He is a werewolf, leader of the Lykae Clan, and twelve-hundred years old. Warm golden eyes, with thick, long hair and a sexy Scottish brogue that could make any woman melt, a strong chin and jaw that compliments the chiseled planes of his masculine face. Six-and-a-half-feet tall with broad shoulders and well muscled arms. He will do anything to find and protect his mate, even if that means cutting off his own leg in order to reach her.

"Much more than I'd hoped." Lachlain ran his fingers through his hair. "I could never even conceive of a mate like her. Emma's clever, with a mind so tricky and complicated, I know I'll never figure her out. And she's far too beautiful and frustratingly secretive and no' like any other woman I've ever met." He took a swig from his glass, this time savoring it. "The more I understand her phrasings, the more I realize my mate is a witty, droll lass." His lips curled absently, no doubt as he remembered some amusement. When he finally faced Bowe again, he said, "I had no' expected her humor, but welcome it gladly."

Just the other day I saw a conversation on Twitter between about five people about how (in YA, in this case) boys are reluctant readers. That is true (and I mentioned this), but not all guys are reluctant readers. I was thinking about how I only know of a few guy young adult authors: Karsten Knight (Wildefire, July 2011, Simon & Schuster BFYR), Scott Tracey (Witch Eyes, September 2011, Flux), John Green (Looking For Alaska, Paper Towns, Let It Snow, An Abundance of Katherines, Will Grayson, Will Grayson) and Jay Asher (Thirteen Reasons Why).

There already a lot of great YA novels that reluctant guy readers would love, don't get me wrong.But I think that, were there more books with a guy's name slapped on the cover, even more reluctant guy readers would be encouraged to read. Because, most likely, they'll find that they love it. And the more reluctant guy readers we turn over to the addiction of YA books, the more chance of more guy YA authors. Get it?

The only thing we can do is encourage everyone -- maybe with a little emphasis on guys -- to start reading from when they're young. And even if they refuse, or put up a hard time, at least they know that books are there. And as they get older, there's a bigger chance they will turn.

Thank you JP for visiting my blog today! I hope you all enjoyed JP's post as much as I did!